Letters
by Cordria
Summary: Early one morning, Danny picks up the mail and is astonished to find a very surprising letter.


_A warm, cozy story story just in time for Thanksgiving here in the U.S.A.! Enjoy. :-)_

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**Letters  
**A Danny Phantom FanFiction by Cordria

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Danny sauntered down the steps, yawning. "It's way too early to be up. Somebody seriously needs to rethink the cosmic idea of 'morning.'" 

He jumped down the last few steps, landing lightly on his toes. He glanced around the living room doing his normal morning perusal for things to watch out for. No new ghost technology sitting on the coffee table waiting to vaporize him, nothing zipping out of walls or the ceiling to try and blast him, and (most importantly) no parents sitting on the sofa wanting to talk to him about something. "So far, so good," he whispered.

Rubbing an eye, he wandered into the kitchen, still scanning drowsily for anything dangerous. Seeing nothing, he grabbed a bowl and the box of cereal. He sat down at the table, yawning again as he poured himself breakfast.

"Danny!" his father suddenly bellowed from inches behind his ear. Cereal scattered across the table and pattered to the floor as Danny dropped the cereal box and almost levitated out of his chair. Trembling slightly, heart pounding, Danny quickly reached forwards to grab his bowl before it smashed to the ground.

_How did I miss the big orange jumpsuit?_ he cursed in his head. "What?" he whispered aloud. He turned around to glare annoyed at his father. He had been happily living in a dazed, half-asleep mode, and would have been able to hold that sleepy feeling for another half-hour – easy. But now he was awake. Completely and totally. No hope of going back to sleep after breakfast.

His father was watching him curiously. "Are you okay?" he asked, a bit softer.

Danny's expression softened. "Yeah," he said, smiling a bit. "You just scared me, is all."

"Ah." Jack's expression brightened. "I wanted to tell you that Maddie and Jazz are going to be gone all day today looking at colleges in the area."

"I thought you were going to go too," he asked, wrinkling his eyebrows. He turned back to look at the mess of a kitchen table, wondering sarcastically who would be made to clean it up.

"If she's interested, we're all going to go see it later. Jazz doesn't want to go to a college around here though."

Danny smiled softly, carefully pouring himself a new bowl of cereal and ignoring the spilt mess for now. He could almost hear his Dad frowning, his expression glum. Of course he wanted Jazz to stay around here. "So, we're home alone on a Saturday?" he asked between mouthfuls of cereal.

"Yup! I'll be down in the lab most of the day."

"And?" Danny knew there was an "and." There was always an "and."

The silence behind him told all. Danny rolled his eyes, answering the question his father wasn't going to ask, but wanted to. "I'm not doing anything with Sam or Tucker today, so it'd be fun to help you… if you want. For awhile." He stressed the "for awhile" part, knowing very well that otherwise he'd be down there all day.

"Wonderful!" Jack boomed, slapping his hand on Danny's shoulder. Danny's arm jerked, the spoon knocking over his bowl of cereal. This time, cereal _and_ milk cascaded across the table and onto the floor. Danny pushed back away from the table in time to keep most of it from dripping onto him. "Um…" Jack continued, staring down at the mess. "You clean this up, get dressed, grab the mail, and meet me down in the lab, okay?"

Danny sighed as he watched his father dash back downstairs into the lab, and then glanced at the table. He reached forward and touched the table, concentrating just long enough to turn the table and his cereal bowl intangible. The spilt milk and cereal dropped through to the floor. After a second's consideration, Danny grabbed his bowl and the box of cereal again. He tipped the box over for his third bowl of the day and shook the box. Only a few bits came out. "Empty," Danny moaned. "Of course."

He drummed his fingers on the kitchen table, contemplating his options. One… he could brave the "Fenton inventions" and try to make toast or waffles or something. Two… he could brave the refrigerator and hope that there were leftovers that weren't either glowing or inedible. Or three… he could go hungry until later. "I'm not that hungry," he muttered as he dropped his bowl into the sink and crushed the cereal box.

Five minutes later, the kitchen was relatively clean again, and Danny headed upstairs to get dressed. He yanked on an old shirt that was already stained from the inevitable goop, grease, or ectoplasmic who-knows-what that comes from working in the lab. Quickly brushing his teeth and pushing his fingers through his hair, Danny headed back downstairs.

At the door, he paused just long enough to grab the mail that had been sitting on the small table by the door since last night when it had been delivered. "Bill… junk… junk…" he whispered, flicking through the mail. "Bill… junk… interesting," he paused, thumbing through the G3 preview magazine that had been sent to him for a second before continuing. "Junk…"

He suddenly stopped dead in his tracks. The last piece of mail was a letter. In a plain white envelope. With a normal-looking stamp. Addressed to him.

No, not to _him_, him, but to the other him. Danny Phantom.

"What?" he whispered, staring at the letter in horror. "How… who…?" he trailed off.

"Danny?" his father called from the kitchen, stomping out into the living room. "What's taking so long?" He took in Danny's pale face and grabbed the mail. He scanned the letter, his face twisting in confusion.

"Uh…" Danny was staring back and forth between the letter and his dad, his mind racing. However had sent the letter obviously knew who he was. They probably said something in the letter. _Help_… he thought.

"Why _do_ we get the ghost kid's mail?" Jack dropped the rest of the mail on the ground and carried the letter back into the kitchen.

"Dad?" Danny whispered, forcing his feet to move. He followed his father into the kitchen and then down into the lab. At the bottom of the stairs, he saw that his father was sitting on the table. Jack reached down and pulled out a big box. After dropping the box onto the table, he picked up the letter. "What are you doing?" Danny drifted closer until he was looking over his father's shoulder.

Jack laughed. He opened the letter, dropping the envelope into the trash. "Look in the box," he said, scanning the letter.

Danny carefully yanked the lid off the box, flinching away from whatever might come flying out. Blinking at the lack of a reaction, Danny peered into the box. It was filled with letters. Glancing at his father, who wasn't looking at him, he reached into the box and picked up the first letter.

_Deer Mr. Fantom_, the letter read, _I don't no your address, so I send this to the ghost hunters so they can get it to you. I just want you two no how wonderful I thinke you are, saveing or town all the time. You're frend, Nick_. At the bottom of the messy handwriting, the kid had drawn a picture of Danny Phantom fighting off a ghost that looked suspiciously like Skulker.

Danny couldn't hold down the grin that spread across his face. He glanced down at the next letter, noticing that it was addressed to "Danny Phantom" as well. "This whole box is letters to Phantom?" he asked softly.

"Yup," Jack answered, setting the newest letter into the box. "Apparently people figure we can get him his mail since we're ghost experts."

"I suppose that makes sense…" Danny dropped his letter back into the box and put the lid back on. "But isn't it kind of illegal to open somebody else's mail?"

"Maddie thinks that since Phantom isn't technically "alive" that doesn't really apply. Besides," Jack grinned at him, "we already asked the post office." Jack grabbed the box and stuffed it back under the table. "That's more than three hundred letters we've gotten over the past few months. Most of them nice letters too."

Danny shook his head. _I know I don't get the mail very often, but how did they get three hundred letters without me noticing?_ "So…" Danny said after a moment, tapping his toes on the floor.

His father pushed his chair away from the table and stood up. "So…" Jack copied, stretching his arms over his head, and then standing still. They stared at each other in silence for a moment.

"What are we going to do?" Danny finally asked.

Jack grinned broadly, breaking the moment and grabbing Danny's hand. "I think I finally got the bug out of the Ghost Decoys. Come look!"

As he was pulled across the lab, Danny glanced back at the box sitting under the table, furrowing his forehead. _Three hundred letters_? he wondered again. Then he grinned. _I guess I've got something to do tonight._

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_Aw... Makes you wonder, though... Why are Maddie and Jack _keeping_ Phantom's letters? _

_Please review for me! _

_Thanks for reading. :-) You are the BEST!_

_--Cori_


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